Zack Snyder Reveals Darkseid Was Originally In ‘Justice League’

It all starts with the Shrine of the Amazons

Zack Snyder has finally revealed the 4th wall (of which we had been made aware of in October) from The Shrine of The Amazons mural that we uncovered last month, in a post on his Vero account today saying:

“A bell can’t be unrung”

Zack Snyder on Vero

Lex Luthor was right

Lex Luthor once said “But, the bells already been rung. And they’ve heard it. Out in the dark, among the stars. Ding-Dong. The god is dead.”

If you’re not familiar with that phrase, it comes from his film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, in which Lex Luthor gives an ominous message to The Batman signifying that something has started with the death of Superman. Maybe David Ayer is most responsible for the bell being rung in the first place. After all, it was just yesterday that we learned that Steppenwolf was originally going to be the main antagonist in Suicide Squad in very early stages of Pre-Production. But that’s for another story. Today, we were given another piece of the puzzle that is the Snyder Cut.

But why today, you ask?

Snyder is known for having meaning almost every time he post something of significance. The other day, he released a video on Vero of his Turkey cooking in the oven for Thanksgiving. Not only was it cinematic, but people started to notice that the temperature was at 120 Degrees. And the caption said “An hour more at least”. If that sounds odd, consider that the theatrical cut of Justice League is 120 minutes exactly, and rumor has it that over an hour of original footage is missing still, meaning a longer version would be an hour longer than 120.

Who knows? But I do know that this image of Darkseid is brilliant. Allow me to explain.

Diana in The Shrine of The Amazons looking at the 4th Wall

Darkseid with the Unity

We already knew about Darkseid

Had we known then, what we know now, it would have been very clear that Lex was speaking about Darkseid. If he knew about Steppenwolf, then he knew about Darkseid. And it works. Mainly because showing Steppenwolf communicating with Lex would have thrown us off just enough to keep us guessing, yet not be too on-the-nose, as Zack tends to stray from.

It also allows us to be introduced to Darkseid without some teaser at the end of a film or mid-credits scene. It’s organic and gives reason on discovering who this figure would be. Imagine that? Batman v Superman gave us wanting more of the other league members while also introducing us to Steppenwolf, and Justice League would have given us wanting more of the New Gods with Darkseid. Both would be featured within the narrative of the story, and both would have felt earned, instead of teased to sell us on the next film.

But what does this all mean?

It means that not only would Darkseid have played a much bigger role in the overall story in Justice League, we would have been introduced to him at the same time as we were introduced to Steppenwolf in the History Lesson. That signifies to me, at least, that my assumption about the entire monologue of the History Lesson being ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) from reshoots, is accurate.

And really, why would there be dialogue over such a visually stunning war on display? Snyder is known for his care in crafting such beautiful imagery, that you can usually tell what’s going on just by watching what’s being shown on-screen.

But this leads me to question another thing: How were we shown these images in film? These murals are so detail oriented, that you can visually see the entire History Lesson without words. Would we have been shown individually, or would they have just been on-screen for mere seconds? Snyder doesn’t like to use Point of View shots in his films, so would these images be briefly shown?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

So let’s look at them

The entrance of the Shrine

There’s so much storytelling in just this one image alone, that I’m amazed we have all 4 walls to tell us everything that happened. We see the Atlanteans arriving beach side, with the Amazons ahead, riding into battle on horseback. Next to them, we see the Tribes of Men, accompanied by Ares and the Atlantean King in front. Wait-Did I just say Ares? Yes, that’s Ares pointing to Darkseid. And we know that he was the Old God to take down Steppenwolf in the original version of Justice League, thanks to Stephen Colbert at Screen Rant.

But that also brings me to another question: Why were we shown that the Atlanteans arrived at a different time in the original film? This side of the mural shows all three of the main groups arriving at the same time. It’s almost as if the History Lesson was edited in such a way to fit the narration being given to us by Diana’s ADR provided by Whedon. But a big budgeted film wouldn’t just randomly fit scenes in a different order, because of what was being told, would they?

That’s right, I forgot about what we were talking about for a second. So what happens when you take out what’s spoken and just visually watch it?

You notice some irregularities.

We’re introduced to Steppenwolf smashing his axe into the ground, then standing by himself. Then all of a sudden, the next shot is of him charging at the full army of The Tribes of Men, with a horde of Parademons in tow. Then the Amazons on horseback charging ahead. We then see a Parademon form (in the background, an Atlantean soldier fighting one as well) and then what looks like Parademons start to charge, but then it cuts to Whedon reshoots to give more exposition.

If that sounds odd, it’s because none of it makes sense. Why would all 3 groups (Amazons, Atlanteans, & The Tribes of Men) already be on the battle field? The narration says they formed their own Unity AFTER Steppenwolf landed on Earth, yet we see them clearly fighting together. So what I did was restructured the original scenes and edited down a version to show how it most likely went. When no narration is available, which version tells the same story, just in a visual form?

Want to see the History Lesson that could have been?

The 1st Wall

Here is the more detailed version for the mural on the left side.

1st Wall

The 2nd Wall

Panning to the next wall, you’ll clearly see Ares with his Axe, pointing up at Darkseid’s arrival. And in a clearer photo, you can see the Atlantean King in his Gold Armor. Notice that it’s very similar to the one Aquaman eventually dons, even with the same Trident from the Dead King.

2nd Wall

2nd Wall

Aquaman in Justice League

The 3rd Wall

After that, we move to the 3rd and final wall before Darkseid that shows images with Boom Tubes, Parademons arriving, and the Priests that we see utilizing the Motherboxes.

3rd Wall

3rd Wall

The Unity was also on the 4th wall

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Unity on display, however. But this also means the Unity does play a major part in the original film as well. We’ve even seen a similar image from Director, Jay Oliva, who worked with Zack on the original film.

4th Wall

Jay Oliva Storyboard from Justice League

It goes on

I’ve started work on a Periodic Table of Justice League on YouTube to help understand what all of this means and to keep working on the Puzzle. That is, until of course, we get the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Maybe this is the beginning of the end to the Snyder Cut debate. Maybe we’ll finally have some semblance of when to expect news on its release, should there be one.

Or maybe, he just felt like posting this image on Vero. But I don’t believe you think that.